littlestown

GETTYSBURG, Pa. — Sunbury Press has released C James Gilbert’s A Second Revolution, the third book in the Langdon Trilogy about civil rights in America throughout history.

About the Book:
At the end of the Great War in November, 1918, Jim Langdon, of Langdon Plantation in Macon, Georgia, is preparing to continue his late father’s work for the full legal equality of Black Americans. Although slavery had been abolished fifty-two years earlier, constitutional rights and guaranteed protection under the law holds no meaning for black citizens.

With his wife, Elizabeth, by his side and Almighty God leading the way, Jim immerses himself in the civil rights movement with a dream of showing the nation that black or white, we are all brothers and sisters.

A long road with the possibility of so much to gain in the end is still a long road, especially when racism and hatred are waiting at every turn. As bloodshed stains the pages of what was written yesterday and the lynching of innocent humans goes unpunished, the Langdons stand fast in their quest to influence people, politics, and patriots to believe that, “All men are created equal”, cannot be defined as a discriminatory phrase.

As time goes by and generations of this Georgia family pass, the promise to carry on the fight passes also, with the hope that full legal equality is realized at the end of a second revolution.

About the Author:
C. James Gilbert, an author since November 2012, has done extensive research on the American Civil Rights Movement. A true supporter of human equality, Mr. Gilbert has completed a trilogy on the subject, titled, The Langdon Trilogy. Raised in the fifties and sixties, Mr. Gilbert witnessed the televised events during some of the most turbulent times in Black America’s struggle for equal rights. It is the memories of those times and his love of history that inspired his literary work.

A native of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Mr. Gilbert now lives in Littlestown, Pennsylvania, with his wife of thirty-five years. He works part-time as a residential electrician, continues writing, and enjoys spending time with his children and grandchildren.

Excerpt:
Jim Langdon was having a very restless night to say the least; it was only five months since the deaths of his parents. As fate would have it, his mother and father both departed within a matter of hours of one another leaving a unique void in Jim’s life that almost nothing could fill.

As he lay in bed beside his sleeping wife, Elizabeth, and while he labored to lie still, his mind wandered; mostly through the past, a direction taken in league with the memory of his mother and father. He was the third generation to own Langdon Plantation, a twenty-five hundred acre cotton plantation located twenty miles south of Macon, Georgia.

But the plantation was not the only thing he inherited from his parents. He was given the belief that all people, regardless of race, are equal and should be treated as such. When Jim’s grandfather, John, owned the plantation, it was worked by slaves. That was when the change in Langdon family history first began. Jim’s father, James―also Jim’s real name―was very much against slavery, and rightfully so. It became a serious issue between Jim’s father and grandfather.

So Jim’s father decided to take matters into his own hands, leaving home when the Civil War broke out, but not to fight for the South as he had led his family to believe. Instead he began helping slaves escape to Canada, later joining the Union army and remaining in Union blue until the end of the war.

One thing Jim had learned in his lifetime: Racism is not inherent; it is taught, and the same is true of anti-racism. His father had been a very direct and permanent influence in his life; that is to say that Jim was a lot like his father. Many points of view were shared, especially that no man should have domain over another; slavery and discrimination were wrong.

When the Confederate States of America was defeated in 1865, the masses of oppressed and impoverished blacks were freed; that is to say that the practice of slavery was forever outlawed by the U.S. Constitution. But James Langdon of Macon, Georgia knew before the war ended that it would be a very long time before the black race would be accepted as social equals.

Having seen a slave beaten for trying to escape from his father’s plantation, James was then, there and forevermore pitted against the evils of bigotry. However, in the immediate years after the war; an enemy, a most formidable foe was born in Nashville, Tennessee and was called the Ku Klux Klan.

To ignite the inferno which would rage between Langdon Plantation and the Klan, a secret that only James’s wife, parents, and sisters knew about became public knowledge. Once the secret was revealed the conflict began; a very devastating conflict.

A true believer in God’s will, James joins forces with his black neighbors to stand against tyranny and those who would try to exercise power over them. He would never be satisfied until America recognized all Americans as equal; both black and white.